Write Your Own "Who Has" Game

We started the really good stuff after playing a game of "Who Has." You know. "I have ... Who has ..." and so on. We talked about how well the game works, that it its easily stored in an interoffice mail envelope labeled with the version of the game, and where different versions of the game are available. We talked about how it might take a long time to play the game the first time but that once a class has learned to play, it is really fun and valuable: The kids don't feel like they are studying math, but, feel as if they are playing.

As I said, after we played the game, then we started the really good stuff.

The purpose of this page is to suggest having a class write their own "Who Has" games. Writing the first game might take a long time, but, once a class has learned to write a game, that too becomes fun and valuable: The kids don't feel like they are studying math. The students feel they are creating THEIR OWN GAME! The teacher realizes they are creating with their mathematics.

Here's the procedure.

• Each student in turn creates, as "x + 7," or chooses, as "4," a number which has not already been chosen.
• The teacher acts as recorder to ensure that each number is used only once, and also monitors which student selected which number.
• The entire class joins hands so that one continuous loop is created which includes each class member.
• The class decides if the play is passed to the right or to the left. This is what our list looked like at the AMTNJ 4/17/99 Meeting. The numbers were written first indicating the relative seating position of the people in the room. The arrows were added once it was decided which way the play was to pass.
• Each person created one card. Each person wrote "I have" and then the number they had chosen. They continued with, ". Who has" and an expression which would yield the number next in sequence and "?" One card read, "I have 18. Who has 1/2 of this, minus 8?" All cards are listed at AMTNJ-Rowan Meeting.
• Don't skipped the crucial editing step which should be included when writing a game with a class. Each person in turn reads his or her just created card to see if play does indeed pass to the next person.
• Every card is collected and the leader creates a final deck of cards and master list for the overhead.

Teachers may swap games within grade levels especially when more than one version of a certain topic has been created. Parents might at Back-to-School Night play the game written by their children. Games written in December may be used in June to review the year's material on that nearly useless last day of school. A proud memory may be awakened when years from now a student finds a game he or she helped to create still in use. But, the most important part about writing a "Who Has" game is not the playing or the sharing of the game, but the thinking and editing and creating that occurred when the game was first created.

Select the version of "Who Has" you wish to use, make the jump, print the page.

• Who Has Introduction
• Whole Numbers
• Signed Numbers
• Linear Expressions
• 10-question, Whole Numbers, AMTNJ 4/47/99 Rowan Meeting

© 6/25/2005, A2, www.mathnstuff.com/papers/games/whohas/write.htm

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